question about babby bunnies

[stormo41]

Hi everyone. I work at a photography studio and we have easter photos every year with live bunnies and chicks.

we got the bunnies today and they are 5 weeks old ( i think that too young myself but there is not much i can do about it) anyway the pet store didn't send them with any Hay. Should they be eating hay at this age?

 

[justjinx]

hay and pellets. jennifer

 

[HGFarm]

That is pretty young... yep, rabbit pellets and some hay. And plenty of fresh water and a small salt block.

 

[LowriseMinis]

Boy, that makes me sad to read.

Unlimited water, unlimited pellets, and unlimited GRASS hay. No alfalfa, as the pellets they're eating are probably alfalfa based.

 

[joyenes]

WE used to have a rabbitry and had about 120 breeding age adults. By the time bunnies are 4 weeks old the mother has already weaned them. They usually start eating small nibbles of hay and pellets at about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks old. They grow so very fast. By 4 weeks they are pretty much self substained. In the wild baby bunnies are on their own by 4 weeks as their mom has already had a new litter. Crazy but they breed back the day or day after they give birth and in 31 days a new litter is born. Depending on the rabbit we would sale them at 4 to 6 weeks old. They are not like kittens and puppies that need to be with their mom until 6-8 weeks sometimes even longer. I hope this information makes some of you not feel so sad about their young age at the time they are sold. They do require good quality pellets, freely fed until they are about 3 months old. After which they need to be feed the correct amount by size and weight.

 

[LowriseMinis]

WE used to have a rabbitry and had about 120 breeding age adults. By the time bunnies are 4 weeks old the mother has already weaned them.

While they may be mostly weaned at 4 weeks, that 4-6 week period is still a very delicate time for them. Uprooting them, taking them somewhere, sticking them in a new environment with different water, different hay, and maybe even different food can stress their systems, and kill them. In many states it is illegal to sell rabbits before 6 or 8 weeks.

So, knowing that these guys were probably just recently weaned and are now going to be subjected to daily handling by people who don't know anything about them and are probably going to cause a few impulse Easter Rabbit buys still makes me sad.

 

[Bunnylady]

Man, if I had a nickle for every time someone has told me "We bought a bunny from the pet shop, but it died!" The pet shops want them at 5 weeks, because they still look like babies at that age. At 8 weeks, they look more like young rabbits, and the aw-w-w-w cute factor is no longer in play. I will "rent" bunnies at this age for photo shoots or Easter egg hunts, but it's only for a couple of hours, then they come back home to the old familiar cage and Momma. In the twenty years plus that I have been raising rabbits, I haven't lost a bunny yet this way (fingers crossed!)

I will not sell bunnies at this age, for the very reason that LowriseMinis gave. While it is true that commercial breeders will wean bunnies at 4 weeks, they aren't moving them to a completely new setting. Often, they will move the doe to a new cage, and everything else for the bunnies remains exactly the same. Also, they expect to lose a few bunnies in the process of growing them up. To me, any bunny losses after the first two weeks are unacceptable.

I don't mean to be quarrelsome, joyenes, but I have seen bunnies nursing well beyond 4 weeks of age. I have some silly does that will continue to nurse babies that are nearly as big as they are, if the bunnies are still in the cage with them. Pet breed does aren't usually worked as hard as commercial does; breeders that are focusing on show quality bunnies seldom breed for more than 4 or 5 litters from the same doe in a year.

If I have bunnies that have been orphaned before 6 weeks of age, or for any reason seem to not be doing as well as I would like them to be, I will add oatmeal to their pellets. Plain, dry rolled oats are a good baby food. Also, if a bunny's poop is a bit gooey, oatmeal can help to firm it up. I agree with what the others have said regarding feeding, that's the only thing I would add.

 

[joyenes]

I guess I'm going to have to defend myself in this case. First off I was not a "commercial breeder" by any means,as bunnylady implied. We raised show rabbits mainly. It was a great time of our lives. The breeds we had were Dwarfs, Hotots, Holland Lops.We attended several shows per year and received many grandchampionships. We had a beautiful rabbitry that was heated in the winter months and cooled in the summer.Our rabbits received the best care possible, getting top rabbit food and always fresh water. I would have people come into my rabbitry and be speechless. It had no order but that of clean shavings. Not a hair would be found as we keep up on every aspect of cleaning.

As everyone knows not all animals we breed for show are of show quality so we also sold pet bunnies from our facility.FYI we never bred a doe more then 3 times per year, A lot of varitables came into play with that.Some would only have 1-2 babies and some would loose their litters. But no one was ever over bred. I must note also that we never figured in "loses" from weaning. Because we never did loose them.

When we sold bunnies the people also received a proper education about how to care for that bunny. We would spend at least 30 to 60 minutes with each customer. They would learn about safety for the bunny, proper foods for them, health care, and how much handleing time they should have as a youngster. Everyone whom purchased from us also new that we would take their bunny back no questions asked if they found the bunny was not the right pet for them or it didn't work out ect..

It was always amazing how many people thought lettuce and leafy greens were what a bunny should eat

I always told them pellets should be their main diet, a little alfalfa or other rabbit treats were just that treats and should not be over feed. I also did the oatmeal for runny stools.

I will say that yes it is sad when people can walk into a TSC or such and by a small pet without knowing the proper means of caring for them. But I will also say I in no way ever contributed to this type of sales. Sorry if some of you like to jump to conclusions and judge others without really knowing all the facts..thats why I usually never give any personal info about myself in this forum.

 

[Bunnylady]

Um, joyenes, I did not assume nor intend to imply that you were a commercial breeder. As a matter of fact, with a herd of only 120 head, I assumed otherwise. As we both know, that would be a very small commercial herd! My own herd usually numbers around 75. Customers are often surprised to see so many, but of course they don't understand the way the numbers add up. Since I am working with 5 breeds, my numbers are actually quite low; I have known people that specialize in the Dwarfs that have 300, easy!

But, if I gave the impression that I was "casting nasturtiums" at you, I apologise. I brought up "the C-word" because I get a lot of customers who have somehow gotten hold of information about how the commercial rabbits are produced, and believe that they are all worked to that sort of schedule. I will say, though, that most of the breeders that I know won't sell babies less than 6 weeks old; they feel they are just too fragile. I have bought 5-week-old bunnies in the past, and I will never do it again! My experience has led me to feel it is just too much of a gamble to expose them to that much stress at that young an age.

Just out of curiosity, did you ever get people looking for "you know, just a regular rabbit??!!"